Mixed history of nuclear site

1939: SELLAFIELD is two farms – Low Sellafield and High Sellafield – on a remote shoreline.
1942: Site taken by the government for an explosive factory in Second World War with a site at Drigg to make bombs and shells.

1947: The Americans refuse to share atomic bomb secrets and material so Sellafield is taken again because of its remoteness to build UK’s first nuclear reactors, with the site named Windscale after a bluff overlooking the sea.
1951: Pile 1 reactor opens to make plutonium for the atom bomb, with Pile 2 opening in 1952.
1956: Calder Hall reactor built nearby principally for generating electricity, but also for weapons-grade plutonium, is opened by the Queen.
1957: Disastrous three-day fire in Pile 1 spews out radioactivity. Both it and Pile 2 never work.
1963: New generation Windscale Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor with its landmark dome begins operating and lasts until 1981.
1964: Magnox nuclear fuel reprocessing plant opens.
1971: British Nuclear Fuels takes over the site from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
1978: Thorp fuel reprocessing site gets the go-ahead. It will handle UK and overseas fuel waste. Work starts in 1981 but it doesn’t open until 1994.
1981: Site officially named Sellafield to lose the image tarnished by the 1957 fire.
1983: Major beach pollution incident at Sellafield.
1985: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens a new £300m fuel handling plant.
1986: Cumbria hit by radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster in the Ukraine 3,000 miles away.
1999: BNFL apologises to Japan and compensates customers after some Sellafield workers took shortcuts on safety checks for Mox fuel.
2005: Big leak in the floor of the Thorp plant from cracked pipe causes long shutdown.
2005: The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is set up to arrange sale of Sellafield to private operators.
2008: Nuclear Management Partners, jointly owned by UK, US and French firms, is set up to run Sellafield.
2010: Redfern Inquiry said removal of body parts from dead Sellafield workers between 1961 to 1992 was unlawful.
2011: Japanese earthquake and tsunami and ensuing Fukushima nuclear power station disaster put paid to hopes for Mox plant orders from Japan and the plant’s closure is announced.
2012: Construction intensifies on massive Evaporator D building which will cut the amount of liquid from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.
2012: Talks continue over plans for a new Mox plant to use Sellafield’s 112 tonnes of stored plutonium to make new fuel for power stations here and overseas.

Source: North West Evening Mail